Sam Machin is a self-taught developer who started tinkering with voice in the early days of the Alexa Voice Service (AVS), which enables developers to integrate Alexa directly into their connected products.

Alexa Champion April L. Hamilton has been building Alexa skills since the Alexa Skills Kit became available in 2015. As one of the original Alexa developers, Hamilton created two of the first skills released for the Echo.

Logitech built a smart home skill for Alexa to work with its Harmony remotes. Customers say simple commands, such as “Alexa, turn on the TV,” or “Alexa, play a DVD,” and Alexa sends the request to the Harmony skill.

Nickelodeon's skill places kids behind the counter at the Krusty Krab diner to take orders they then have to remember. The SpongeBob Challenge skill features 70 characters from the show including Patrick, Plankton, and Mr. Krabs.

To delight and educate kids, Sesame Workshop launched an Alexa skill that features Elmo, one of Sesame Street’s most famous characters. Now, with a parent’s consent, kids can say, “Alexa, Ask Sesame Street to call Elmo” and start engaging with the Muppet character via voice.

Nestlés' GoodNes skill is accompanied by a unique GoodNes visual guide, which connects to consumers’ web browser on their computer or tablet to offer what Nestlé calls a “visual voice browsing” experience.

The Royal Opera House skill for Alexa delivers performance information whenever customers ask. Customers can simply say, “Alexa, ask the Royal Opera House what’s on this weekend,” and Alexa responds with the information customers need to plan ahead for shows.

With the arrival of Echo Show, the Allrecipes team leveraged the new built-in display templates in the Alexa Skills Kit to offer visual content including streaming video. The result: Allrecipes’ tried-and-true skill for Alexa enriched with beautiful visual aids on the Echo Show screen.

“Most of the time, our customers want to know what is happening right then at a certain location,” says Naveen Chhangani, Senior Director of Product Management at Arlo. “With Echo Show, there is no dependency on the phone or the app; the results are immediate.”